Sly responds to Eggo: "Perhaps they can be reasoned with? I am capable of producing a distracting noise from some distance (prestidigitation), but I doubt they will be receptive to diplomacy if we start the talk by first luring them here."

Sighing, "Well, if we are trying to be diplomatic, we would be inviting them to our camp, not luring them into an ambush. Further, it is always better to negotiate from the powerbase of your own camp, not their camp. But, if we want to go to them instead, I have no problem with that, but remember, sometimes you have to be fast with your words, not just your feet." Hugh smiles and walks toward the hallway, making sure his rapier is in sheath and well positioned.

Bilyur says, "I can also provide a distraction, as a gnome, I can create some illusions which could distract them long enough to sneak by." (Minor Illusion)

Eggo Lass delights at the magical trickery proposed by Sly and Bilyur. She concurs with Sly and Hugh's assessments, "Very well. Let us be," she strikes a pose resembling a enthused orator, "diplomatic." She chuckles and adds, "Plus if I recall the laws correctly then, not being authorized personnel, they are trespassing in these tunnels."

Those who wish to go through the tunnel to the east to where Sly heard the voices from and come out in a 25 feet wide 30 feet long room, held up with pillars that have hammocks and crates stacked between them. In the centre of the hall, about 6 humans, wearing tattered armour but each with a dirty and scruffy red scarf, stand around what looks to be the scavenged corpse of a porcupine. All of the flesh has been taken of it, leaving just the bones and putrefied guts. One of the cultists, a short human with a large domed head and huge eyes, pokes at the corpse with a stick, the says 'Do you reckon we could eat this, Tony?'. Tony, a tall human with sunken eyes and little teeth says 'I dunno Pete, I've never eaten bone before.' A female human with long, black and matted hair then pipes up, moaning in a high pitched wine 'What sort of adventurer doesn't carry rations on him? What use is a stupid hedgehog?' Its clear that they haven't noticed you yet and are far more distracted with the porcupine.

Hugh smiles, and steps into the room. "Been down here a while? Where is your leader?" He looks to each one in turn, sizing them up, quite a feat for a halfling. "I would hold off on eating that. I have seen dwarves gag on hedgehogs before."

Sly enters a few steps behind Hugh, discreetly using detect magic to survey the situation, but letting him do the talking. Is it obvious what is in the crates just by looking at them?

‘Eh?’ Each of the cultists whips there head around in an instant as Hugh announces his presence. Surprisingly, they don’t seem violent, just a bit shocked. Tony, the tall human says ‘Yeah, we been hear a long time, bout 5 years now.’ He then looks sadly at the corpse of the porcupine and says ‘Well if we can’t eat this then what food you got on you? I’ll tell you where to find the Red Knight if you feed us.’ Sly doesn’t detect any magic, and looking at the crates, the majority of them are closed and unlabelled, but the open ones contain ropes, pitons and other adventuring gear, so that’s what you assume is in the other crates as well. 

Eggo Lass looks at the porcupine bones. Marrow could be cooked well if they were looking for food even if it seemed uncoventional. Although with the putrefication of the organs there was a chance it was past its prime anyways. A culinary crime for them to not make good use of such, surprisingly, delicious material. Particularly if they were desperate for food! Tut tut some had no appreciation for the art of cooking.

"I concur with my associate," she says of Hugh's comment on the porcupine. "Though I must say I am shocked you've gone five years, apparently fending off hunger like this every now and then, without knowing how to properly get the flavor and nutrients out of bones." She looks at the others to get a gander of if they're leaning towards giving some food in hopes of a diplomatic solution. 

Sly doesn't look pleased with the prospect of giving out food, but she sees the use of these people if they truly knew about the red knight.

"I have precured some rations before this expedition. I don't mind parting with some of them. Yet it strikes me: how were you able to feed yourselfes for 5 years?"

Bilyur follows Sly distastefully. As the topic of food is discussed, he looks into his pack and says, "I have rations, but I don't suppose regular humans would want any of them." Reaching into his pack, he pulls out a bowl of live mealworms, another of boiled flax, and finally, some boiled and split willow bark with a siphon. He offers it to the cultists tentatively, expecting their reaction to monastery food to be similar to most people's. Disgust, maybe gagging. However, they had just considered eating the rotten guts of a porcupine, so...

"I think we can provide you, um, gentle beings dinner if you would be so kind as to tell us the location of Red Knight. There would even be a bonus if your information if accurate." Hugh unslings his backpack and open one of the side pouches and pulls out a ration. "What say you hungry folks?"

Gonna roll a die here. 12

roll ≤ 9

roll ≥ 10

 edit: grammar and fixing the roll syntax

Quote from VitusW >>

Gonna roll a die here. 5

roll ≤ 9

Missing Bilyur's reluctance to part with rations, Eggo Lass cheerfully pipes up. "Though such foods may look unappealing they are high in nutrients. And don't mind the taste," she casts a quick prestidigitation to flavor the mealworms into a feast for a king, "they'll be better than you could possibly imagine."

roll ≥ 10

Eggo Lass realizes Bilyur is reluctant to part with his rations, though she questions the sanity of someone that would willing eat those things. She makes a disgusted face to accompany Bilyur's offer in selling the deal of the rations being undesirable.

 edit: grammar and fixing the roll syntax

 We using the 26 from mouse over or the 5 from display? I mean since 1d20+7 can't roll a five, I would use the 26.

Quote from RippedRhinoVikings >>

Quote from VitusW >>

Gonna roll a die here. 5

roll ≤ 9

Missing Bilyur's reluctance to part with rations, Eggo Lass cheerfully pipes up. "Though such foods may look unappealing they are high in nutrients. And don't mind the taste," she casts a quick prestidigitation to flavor the mealworms into a feast for a king, "they'll be better than you could possibly imagine."

roll ≥ 10

Eggo Lass realizes Bilyur is reluctant to part with his rations, though she questions the sanity of someone that would willing eat those things. She makes a disgusted face to accompany Bilyur's offer in selling the deal of the rations being undesirable.

 edit: grammar and fixing the roll syntax

 We using the 26 from mouse over or the 5 from display? I mean since 1d20+7 can't roll a five, I would use the 26.

[[ The mouseover is drunk. I did 1d20+1 (her insight) ]]

Tony the human, who you assume to be the head of this little band of cultists says; 'We've all lived off the genie...genoris...genoristy of adventurers that pass through. We ask for food in exchange for information and then they give us rations from their packs, it's a win-win. Although unfortunate-lately not many adventurers have came our way so we're a bit on the peckish side. We'd be happy to take whatever food you've got, as much as you can give, as much as you have on you even, as there's a lot of us to feed.' And as Tony stops talking you notice more hungry cultists have slunk out of bed or the shadows to gather round, each either liking their lips or holding cutlery that seems out of place within the sewers. 

Telepathically Eggo Lass will say to each partymember, (I don't like the look of this. Hunger breeds desperation.) While shifting uneasily, reading for a likelihood of combat, he says out loud, "Let's talk numbers. You have how many people? You need food. We want information on the red knight." she racks her brain, spitballing, "But whereas we've shown you the high quality of our food we've yet to know the quality of your information." She stows her knife to take out one of her rations, "How about you start talking about the red knight and I'll toss this over to you."

[[ About how many cultists are there now? ]]

'Well, this turned from a chartiy to a robbery real fast', Sly thinks to herself and agrees with Eggo. She casually, as if inspecting the room interiors, moves back towards the entrance.

Bilyur gins as the cultists begin to move to an attack position. Casting Minor Illusion he creates the image of himself transforming into a large ogre. 

(Under five feet tall because of spell limitations.)

The original number of cultists in the room has tripled, and went from 6 to 18. Tony flinches slightly at the sight of Bilyur's transformation, but it seems he's seen far worse during his time as a cultist 'It'll take more then that to scare me!', he says, then he makes a few hand gestures that you can't decipher aimed at the cultists. 'All we're asking for is all the food you have on you. You're a hefty sized party and must have brought enough to last days, so we'll be needing all of it if we want to be fed.' He leans in, idly toying with the strap of his scimitar handle, and says 'I'm a man of my word however. Give us the food and I'll tell you all you need to know about the Red Knight. It's as simple as that.'

[I'm gonna say that the cultist's Dark Devotion trait would mean that they're not too phased by the illusion as they would have seen similar magic from adventurers in the past, but I'll allow Bilyur to gain advantage on Deception and Intimidation checks to bluff his way into making them thinking the transformation is stronger then they thought]